Zackary Sholem Berger
How We Live Now
Categorical judgments are so over.
It’s all about nuance.
That’s the fashion in France.
Be a distinction-lover.
Rather than seek the good,
Complicate others’ judgments.
Acquire thereby the rudiments
Of a tolerant mood.
At the end of days —
I recently read —
Every will becomes may,
Every should becomes dead.
Comfort
by Rita Kogan
Translated from Hebrew by Zackary Sholem Berger
Once the world was wide
And comfort small.
As the world shrank
Comfort puffed up,
Now the world is shrunk
To an ellipsis. Tremendous comfort
Wraps it like a terrible
Fluff pillow.
Wrapping, caressing, crushing
Till the world fades away,
A strangled comma.
Only comfort
All around now.
Zackary Sholem Berger is a poet and translator in Baltimore working in and among Yiddish, English, and Hebrew. He has been published in Poetry, BODY, and other journals.